My Royal Highnesses

By Eireen Manikan

For as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of the Royal Family, UK edition.  A lover of anything grand and beautiful, it came as no surprise that I would be a forever-fan of this grandiose family who live in castles to us, home to them; ride in high breed horses on any ordinary day, own thousands and thousands of land and wear palm-sized diamonds for dinner, with a tiara to boot.  This family – whose kingdom began as early as the 10^th century and was passed on from various kingdoms (House of Plantaganet, Tudor, Hanover, Stuart) and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha where the incumbent king comes from, has literally been there and done that.

Much is expected of them because of their blue blood and their special place in the hierarchy of humankind (the King or Queen is also known as Defender of the Faith) which perplexes me to no end as they are as human as you and I except for their privileged upbringing. That is why when they fall short, (I am still wondering why we get surprised when they do) their public go wild even to the point of demanding for their extinction.

So, why do they fall short? And how?

Again, because just like you and I, they are prone to zits, warts and what have you. Seriously, they have the same emotional and mental susceptibilities as any normal being and maybe even more so since everyone wants to have a part of them, and they are always on radar.

In my opinion, there are three royals by birth (in my lifetime) who disgracefully fell short in an epic manner of our expectations and are living to regret it.

The KING. Who hasn’t heard or have an idea about the marriage of then Prince Charles to Princess Diana? And everything that went with it? By now we all know how it went and ended tragically another proof that they are very human and aren’t spared from lack of judgement sometimes to the detriment of the whole family.  There are 3 things that shocked me that the King has done, again, because I naively expected him to be more than the average guy. The first is the M word, he fell for a woman other than his wife and defied everyone by continuing the relationship while still married. The second is his ability to “talk dirty” which may be exciting and risqué to some but downright shocking for a member of the blue blood.  Can you imagine seeing him in a crown one day or riding in his collectible Audi going out of his castle and talking about wanting to be a tampon to his mistress at night. And the third, not being able to “save” his youngest son from leaving The Firm and living in another country without even processing the son’s frustrations and heartaches (as the son has sadly shared to everyone in his book).

GINGER. The youngest son of the present king is also known for his red hair which he must have gotten from his mother’s side, and that’s not the only thing that he seems to have gotten; he seems to have gotten his mother’s visceral tendencies as well.  Being highly emotional may not be bad, for ordinary people but for royalty where discretion and control are almost a must like the air they breathe, every time they become publicly emotional, well, they become human in our eyes. So, for Harry to expose family laundry through interviews and a book really makes him an ordinary mortal.

BROTHER DEAREST. Known to be the Queen’s favorite child, and in my opinion the handsomest of the brood, Prince Andrew is what comes to mins when you hear Dashing Prince. All the necessary ingredients were there to ensure that he becomes a flop sadly, and just be like any infamous personality in this world.  Doted on by the most powerful person in their kingdom (his mother), being invited in the most lavish and wild parties, dating anyone he wanted because of who he is, and the most tragic of all, having a pervert for a friend and being involved allegedly in an embarrassing situation.

 

All these and more have made me realize certain things about the family that I really look up to and that I consider almost un-human.  That they too are very human and though with more responsibilities than the usual ones, that they are expected to always act with utmost decorum because of typical stereotyping and lastly, they are probably the most judged family of all time. Now, what does that make them? These people who have almost everything yet clearly make mistakes like they have every right to? But more importantly, what does that make? Judging them without even meeting them and not knowing the completely whole story all the time?